Steel Orchids Blog

Pick Up A Penguin – Everyone Else Is!

Feb 2nd, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Today my Stargazer Penguin has been featured in this great Penguin-themed treasury on Etsy, thanks Freya Brooks! There seems to be a real trend for penguin-themed things at the moment. The penguin charm bead is one of our best selling items – ever since Frozen Planet started back in November was it? I love the Penguin Chick Needle Felted Brooch in this treasury – I might have to get one of those!

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Tags: charm bead, charmbead, Jewellery, Jewelry, Necklace, penguin, Silver

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February Competition: Win a Lovebirds Necklace

Feb 2nd, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Its a new month, and time for a new competition! This month’s prize is a beautiful sterling silver Lovebirds necklace by Sphere of Life. The sterling silver pendant is shaped like a spherical birdcage with two 18ct gold-plated lovebirds perched inside, and of course comes in the stunning Sphere of Life packaging.

The challenge this month is to answer this question:

How many pieces of heart-themed jewellery do we have on our website?

Oh, and by heart-themed we mean that it has a heart on the design somewhere. You can either post your answer here, on our Facebook page, or tweet us.

We’ll choose one person who gets the answer right and announce them Thursday 9th February – good luck everyone!

this competition is also listed on:

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions and Loquax Competitions

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Tags: birds, Competition, Jewellery, Jewelry, lovebirds, Necklace, valentine, Valentines Day, win

Posted in Competitions & Giveaways | 189 Comments »

Etsy Treasury: My Little Pearl

Feb 1st, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Our Wish Bracelet: Wishing for a Baby was featured in this very cute Etsy treasury today: My Little Pearl. I particularly love the ‘Good morning, we’re having a baby‘ spoon!

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Tags: bracelet, etsy, handmade, Jewellery, Jewelry, pearl, rose quartz, Silver, treasury

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Our competition winner is…

Jan 24th, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Wow, we had a huge amount of entries to our competition yesterday, nearly 700 across the blog and our Facebook and twitter accounts! The lucky winner is (drumroll please…) Chris Andrews.

Chris, we’ve emailed you to confirm that you’ve won – congratulations!

https://twitter.com/#!/steelorchids

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Tags: Competition, Jewellery, Jewelry, winner

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Year of the Dragon: Inspiration

Jan 23rd, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Happy Chinese New Year everyone! To celebrate I’ve decided to design a dragon necklace to go with my other little animals. The first step in my design process is always a mood board, with different ideas of the design I’m working on. This is my current mood board – Dragons tend to be very fancy and twirly, so the challenge is to make it a simple shape which will work for a piece of high-shine silver jewellery. I’ll keep you posted. If you’ve got any great dragon pics let me know!

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Tags: chinese, Design, dragon, dragons, handmade, Jewellery, Jewelry, moodboard, Necklace, Silver

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Competition: Win a Pearl Vintage-Style Necklace

Jan 23rd, 2012 by Steel Orchids

We’ve got a challenge to brighten your cloudy Monday morning – we’re offering a beautiful vintage-style pendant to one lucky winner who can answer this question:

How many pieces of pearl jewellery do we have on our website?

The necklace is sterling silver and set with cubic zirconia and a single oval freshwater pearl. You can either post your answer here, on our Facebook page, or tweet us.

We’ll choose one person who gets the answer right and announce them tomorrow – good luck!

this competition is also listed on:

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions and Loquax Competitions

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Tags: Competition, Jewellery, Jewelry, Necklace, pearl

Posted in Competitions & Giveaways | 435 Comments »

Etsy Treasury: Cute & Cuddly Penguin Jewellery

Jan 18th, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Thanks to Soc Gobea from twistandweave who has featured our Stargazer Penguin in this Cute and Cuddly Etsy treasury.

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Tags: earrings, etsy, Jewellery, Jewelry, Pendant, penguin, penguins, ring, treasury

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Lookbook: Glam Goth

Jan 17th, 2012 by Steel Orchids

From top left: Jonathan Aston Casino tights (as seen on both Cheryl Cole and Jessie J) at Boots, Black Lace Grecian Dress at £60 Wallis, Silver, Black Cubic Zirconia & Black Rhodium Pendant £35 by Elements Jewellery at Steel Orchids, Black lace clutch bag £25 by Jasper Conran at Debenhams, Silver Tilly Wish Bracelet in Black £19 by One Wish, Tough lace shoe boot £45 by Karen Millen, Silver, Black Cubic Zirconia & Black Rhodium Heart Earrings by Elements Silver.

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Tags: black, bondage tights, CZ, dress, fashion, glam, goth, gothic, heels, jasper conran, jonathan aston, Karen Millen, lace, lookbook, Necklace, Silver, tights, wallis

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5 Hot Jewellery Trends for 2012

Jan 16th, 2012 by Steel Orchids

Handmade jewellery
When times are hard people want to spend their money on something they feel is individual and unique. There is a growing trend towards handmade and also custom-made jewellery
Antique and vintage jewellery
Again, the growing trend towards something unusual is boosting the already popular vintage and antique jewelery market. Etsy is a great place to look for inexpensive vintage jewellery.
Nature and Flora
Flowers, plants and animals seem to feature heavily in a lot of this years jewellery collections. Anything nature-inspired looks like a hot trend for 2012.
Big, bold & chunky
Following on from the trend for large cuff bracelets last year, bold chunky jewellery is set to stay fashionable this year, from big stacked bangles to chunky statement rings.
Yellow gold
The trend for white gold which we’ve seen in recent years seems to be being replaced by yellow gold. After the high rises in both silver and gold prices, consumers want to their gold jewellery to be obviously gold. Gold plated jewellery is also becoming really popular.